1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to footwear and, more particularly, to a shoe construction that is helpful to physically impaired users.
2. Description of Related Art
There are numerous circumstances whereby a person is unable to bend down to put on a pair of shoes. Injury, disease, arthritis, obesity and surgery are a few of the reasons why it is desirable to provide a simple and easy way to put on an article of footwear without the use of one's hands or the necessity of bending down. This problem is not new and numerous appliances have been devised to overcome it.
For example, elongated shoe horns are often used to provide a means for permitting the engagement of one's foot with a shoe. Unfortunately, most shoe openings are too small and require hand manipulation to permit entry. As such, the elongated shoe horn is not helpful to many people who cannot reach down.
To enlarge the shoe opening, a variety of shoes have been developed having a movable heel counter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,277 shows a hinged heel counter which is adjustably held together by Velcro straps. U.S. Pat. No. 3,192,651 shows a hinged plate which is secured with a buckle and strap arrangement. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,410, the sole of a shoe is hinged to the heel allowing the heel to pivot away from the upper. Because of the loose hinge, the shoe parts must be held together with a locking plunger mechanism.
There are numerous other patents that describe shoes that are elongatable. Examples of these constructions are U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,985 which shows a separable heel and sole arrangement having a series of screw openings that allow the longitudinal adjustment of the heel relative to the sole. A similar arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,925 wherein a heel part and sole plate are provided with transversely extending spacers which are held together with a pair of metal rods and associated fasteners. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,252,315, a slipper is disclosed that simply utilizes an elastic band for allowing the slipper to be longitudinally extended.
Unfortunately, none of the above constructions obviate the need to not bend down or use one's hands. In fact, only the shoe construction shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,327 appears to have addressed this problem. In this patent, a sandal is shown having a rigid sole and looped cloth upper. A tilting rear heel assembly is secured to an underlining base which is fastened to the upper part of the sole. An L-shaped heel part is tilted backwards by springs wherein a user inserts their foot into the cloth loop and presses down with their heel to rotate the heel part against the back of the user's foot. As the bottom of the heel part engages the base structure, a latching mechanism secures it in place. When the user wishes to disengage the heel, a rearwardly extending plunger is pressed against a solid object which releases the mechanism.
Merely describing the above assembly makes obvious its significant complexity and cost to produce. Also, it has limited application to primarily a sandal-type of footwear. This is because the sole does not bend and only the "L" shaped heel part rocks backwards. Therefore, only a shoe that has significant open space between the shoe upper and heel can be used.